Shaken, Not Stirred
by GrangerWinchester
Summary: There are few things that could surprise Alan Blunt anymore but Alex Rider managed to do it with only a few words. One-shot. Set between Scorpia and Ark Angel.


**A/N: I've had the beginnings of this one-shot idea in my mind for almost a year but hadn't found the time or inspiration to write it until now. Especially since I've been busy working on my other story, Becoming Agent Rider. xD **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider. Or James Bond, which I'm sure everyone knows is where the title of this one-shot came from. I've never watched James Bond but it seems to be a famous line from that series. **

**Anyways, the part in italics is the memory, a direct quote from the Scorpia book that this one-shot idea was based on. I hope everyone enjoys this!**

Silence.

If anyone else had been in the sixteenth-floor office of a certain bank, that would be all they could hear at the moment. A grey man stood by the window, looking out over the quiet street. The rise and fall of his chest as he breathed was the only indication that he was even alive. He was a stone cold statue, watching the night pass by.

A tornado.

If anyone could see into the man's mind, that would be what they found at the moment. It was so incredibly different from the outward calm he projected that even Mrs. Jones, the one person he was remotely close to, would have to check twice to confirm his identity. But his deputy head wasn't here right now. Neither were most of the other employees. They had all gone home for the night several hours ago. Except him.

Blunt was shaken to his core. He could count on one hand the number of times he was rattled. One of them was over a decade ago, when John and Helen Rider were blown up on their plane. Another one - the last time he was surprised - happened a little less than a decade ago, when Ian Rider had gotten out of his depressive state over his brother and sister-in-law's deaths. The man had started to play all sorts of pranks in the office, making it a tradition to expect a prank after every mission the agent came back from. Blunt hadn't even known that a seasoned spy could be so childish.

There were few things that could shock Blunt anymore. His years in the field had taken care of that. And one didn't lead an entire intelligence division by being easily surprised.

There were even fewer things that could catch him off guard so much that his very beliefs were shaken. The last event that had done that was the Riders' deaths. They had set up entirely new identities to protect that family and had failed. After the news had reached him, Blunt didn't even trust his own agents' capabilities anymore. Or trustworthiness.

Now, he was unnerved, with his beliefs shaken again. And it was all because of Alex Rider. That boy was an enigma.

Damn those Riders. They were all extraordinarily talented. And difficult to peg. If Ian Rider had stirred the pot in his colourless life, then the Riders' deaths had shaken it. He should have known that Alex would do the same. Perhaps the better question he should have asked himself was whether Alex would stir the pot or shake it. Well, that question was answered a week ago. Shaken, not stirred.

For a whole week, the memory of presenting Alex with the mission that sent the boy back into SCORPIA's ranks kept replaying in Blunt's mind, torturing him with it's implications.

_"Do you want to work for SCORPIA?" Blunt demanded. _

_"I don't know." Alex shrugged. "I'm not sure it's any different to working for you."_

_"You don't believe that. You can't believe that."_

Those words haunted him. The whole reason why he did this job, dedicating his whole life to it, was to protect the innocent from the monsters of the world. That Alex would think he was no different than SCORPIA, one of the world's largest and most dangerous criminal organizations, jarred him. Alex couldn't really believe that, could he? Was his treatment of the boy that bad? He had let that housekeeper of his stay in the country. He had even let the boy continue attending the same school, keep his childhood home, and didn't send him to an orphanage. What more did the boy want? Money? Girls? A fancy car? Ice cream? He just didn't know.

Sure, Alex had told him multiple times that he just wanted to be normal. That the boy didn't want any part of this world. But the boy was good at this job. There was no other child that he would have even considered for any missions, not even low level ones. The Riders were the only agents that were consistently capable and reliable. And Alex had been trained from birth. Not to mention the boy's unfailing sense of loyalty. And of duty. Couldn't the boy see what he was trying to do? How high the stakes were? That he didn't have any choice but to use Alex? Besides, the boy had much too strong of a sense of right and wrong to just stand by when he could do something. It was bound to get him involved in these things sooner or later.

What had he done to the boy to deserve being compared to SCORPIA? Had he turned into the very monster that he was fighting against every day? He couldn't have. He'd have noticed. Wouldn't he? Maybe not. He barely felt any emotions anymore. What did that mean for him? Had he lost his humanity? Was it recoverable? Did he even want to find his humanity again? If it meant being able to analyze all of the intelligence coming in and making the tough calls for the sake of the country's security, then maybe not.

Was he doing the right thing? Even now, with Alex about to come out of surgery at St. Dominic's from the sniper shot sustained that afternoon, he was thinking about the next mission for the boy. It wasn't exactly an official MI6-sanctioned mission but he knew that Byrne over in the CIA already had an agent looking into Drevin's space project. And if anything was found to be unsavoury, it would affect Britain's reputation in the world too. Maybe start a war. It was best to have an agent of his own involved to check on things. And what better way than to have Alex befriend Drevin's teenage son? If he did this right, it would bait Byrne into using Alex again. Then, he'd have insurance that a disaster would be averted if his suspicions on Drevin rang true and obtain the information from Alex when he returned to England. All without the mission being on record from his side.

Should he make the call though? Was this the kind of thing that made Alex turn away from MI6 in the first place, into SCORPIA's arms? That made Alex compare him to SCORPIA and despise working for either?

Perhaps it didn't matter. The safety of the country would always come first.

Turning away from the window, Blunt sat down at his desk again and picked up the phone, dialling the well-memorized number.

"Put Alex Rider in the room next to Paul Drevin," he ordered as soon as someone picked up the call on the other end.

The person receiving his order barely had time to utter a confirmation before Blunt hung up.

You may hate me for it, Blunt thought as he finally packed up for the night. But, maybe one day, you will see why it had to be this way. Why it had to be you, Alex.

**A/N: I think there is a lot of meaning packed into Blunt's response to Alex in the books, saying "You don't mean that. You can't mean that." It gives us a rare glimpse into Blunt's true emotional state and how he sees his decisions. This one-shot is my exploration of what Blunt's inner thoughts could have been, in that moment and in the following days. Lol this feels like I'm in English class, analyzing the text to death. If only I had this many ideas in English class. The following are some of my thoughts that led to this one-shot. **

**With the importance that Blunt places on John Rider and the amount of effort they would have put into creating a new life for John and his family, I think it's plausible that Blunt would have started questioning his own agents after John and Helen's deaths. We already see in the books that he doesn't trust anyone. But with all three Riders being his top agents, maybe he actually does trust some people? Namely, the Riders. And maybe that's part of why he keeps coming back to Alex? **

**Also, I think it's kind of funny how Alex nearly kills Jones because he's fed up with the way MI6 has treated his family (in his point of view at the time) and himself but Blunt doesn't bat an eye. In fact, Blunt seems to have not reacted to it at all, going about things like it's business as usual. But Alex indicating that MI6, and Blunt himself by extension, is no different than SCORPIA? Well, now Blunt has a problem. I'd imagine that the reaction he gave Alex is about the equivalent of someone else desperately trying to grab onto a lifeline or something. xD **

**I notice in the books that Alex was asked to come in for the SCORPIA debriefing in the books, instead of ordering him to. With Blunt second guessing himself in that line, my theory is that Alex made him think enough about how he treats people to make that small change. To be considerate for once. **

**Anyways, thanks for reading! Let me know what you think! A follow, favorite, and/or review of this one-shot would be much appreciated. **

**This is a stand-alone one-shot but it could be related to my other story, Becoming Agent Rider, since I've tried to stick to the books as much as possible for both. Also, if you like this and haven't read my other stories yet, check them out and let me know what you think of those! **


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